Library News Blog

Take a look at the newest section of our library: the Browsing Collection! Located just past the Niederhoffer Lounge on the first floor, this growing collection of fiction and non-fiction is the place to find your next must-read. Looking for a beach read or a homework break? Look no further!

A selection of titles:

Casino Royale (starring James Bond!) (1953), by Ian Fleming

The Best American Short Stories (2001), ed. Barbara Kingsolver

The Godfather Returns (2004), by Mark Winegardner

Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), by Tracy Chevalier

The Interpretation of Murder (2006), by Jeb Rubenfeld

On Death's Bloody Trail: Murder and the art of forensic science (1993), by Brian Marriner

Materials highlighting the Lloyd Sealy Papers are currently on exhibit in the Niederhoffer Lounge on the first floor of the library. Stop by the exhibit and see why John Jay College is honored to have named the library after this outstanding individual. You may learn more about the manuscript collection by reading this finding aid (PDF). The Lloyd Sealy Papers are available by appointment only in Special Collections to interested researchers.

Crime Fiction is literature that deals with fictional versions of crime. It is different from True Crime, which are tales based in fact. Crime Fiction is limited only by imagination and can including detective mysteries, noir thrillers, and courtroom drama. On display in the Niederhoffer Lounge are some samples of excellent crime fiction available at the John Jay College Library!

The essay contest is now closed, but you can still visit the exhibit on the upper floor. Good luck to all the students who entered!

A new exhibit in the library features some exhibition catalogs recently donated by the Rubin Museum. A corresponding pamphlet written by Professor Karen Okamoto lists the titles in the Rubin donation as well as a small selection of related books in our collections as well as suggestions for finding many more resources.

This exhibit is also intended to support students who are researching and writing essays to submit to the Rubin Museum Essay Contest. This contest offers 7 cash prizes toward your tuition, between $500-$3000 for John Jay undergraduate student writers who write winning essays. More information on the award as well as a worksheet of suggested topics are also available as another handout adjacent to the exhibit, which is behind the reference desk on the second floor of the library.

The Librarians are available to assist you in researching your essay at the reference desk whenever the library is open. Entry to the Rubin Museum is free to all John Jay Students and Staff.

From the Essay Contest Instructions:

Choose a work or set of works of art from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art. Write an essay about the work (or those works) that explores how the piece or pieces define or express the idea of justice. As John Jay commences its 50th anniversary, it may be useful to reflect on our history as a college and a force for social change as you come up with the concept for your essay topic. Your essay may consider any of a wide range of issues, including but not limited to: justice as it relates to retribution and punishment; justice as it relates to death; justice as it relates to the possible differences between what gods and human beings consider fair; justice as it relates to violence and non-violence.

In order to be considered an essay must be typewritten and submitted in hard copy. No e-mailed or faxed entries will be considered. The essay must be between 1000 and 3000 words long. Each student entering an essay, must submit four copies of the essay to Office of Fellowship & Scholarship Opportunities by no later than 5:00pm on April 5th, 2013 The first copy of the essay must be accompanied by a detachable title page bearing the name of the student and the last four digits of his/her Social Security Number. The remaining pages of all copies of the submission must include the last four digits of the Social Security Number and no other identifying information. The Office of Fellowship & Scholarship Opportunities will accept submissions from March 11th through April 5th. Winning essays will be selected by April 19th. For more information consult the Rubin Museum website. See also: more information about past winners.

From the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Essay Contest Worksheet:

Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011

Spring 2013: While visiting the Rubin Museum of Art, you might consider researching the artworks below as they relate to concepts of justice. You are not limited to these works, and we encourage you to investigate others, but they provide a good place to start. If you have questions, roaming Museum Guides in our galleries can help and there are Rubin Museum catalogs in the John Jay library. All works can be found on the 2nd floor. To learn more about our collection, visit rmanyc.org where you will find museum resources, online interactives, and links to audio guides at iTunesU. Most pieces in the museum have a Himalayan Arts Resources (HAR) number. By visiting himalayanart.org, and typing in the HAR number, you can read articles about artworks and download their images. Please be sure to cite the HAR number in your essay.

Questions about the Essay Contest? Please contact Kevin Nesbitt at the Office of Academic Affairs at knesbitt@jjay.cuny.edu or Vielka Holness at the Office of Fellowship & Scholarship Opportunities at vholness@jjay.cuny.edu.

As technology makes the world increasingly more visually oriented, many are turning to graphic novels to become an essential component in literacy, education, and entertainment. On display in the Niederhoffer Lounge are some samples of excellent graphic novels available at the John Jay College Library!

Fire Science and Security Management are a very hot set of topics offered at John Jay College. On display in the Niederhoffer Lounge in the Library is a small but focused exhibit on fire science. The display highlights key fire science texts available from the library as well as information on where to find more material on fire science and other related topics. In addition, the exhibit comes complete with a detailed brochure that lists specific resources students can use.

Several months ago EBSCO (publisher of Academic Search Complete, etc.) took over the H. W. Wilson Company. As a result, EBSCOhost databases have been combined with existing similar databases from the H. W. Wilson company and new names have been given to the merged results. While the following new databases have replaced databases that were formerly on our list, no content has been lost. In fact, in all cases, there is more content than we had previously:

Thousands of books have been made into movies. For a snapshot of book and movie titles in our collection visit the exhibit next to the circulation desk on the first floor of the library or go to our Pinterest board. Feel free to leave a comment or like your favorite book or movie. Search CUNY+, the online catalog, to find those available at the Lloyd Sealy Library.

Some books made into movies focus on popular literature like Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (book, DVD) and Ian McEwan’s Atonement (book, DVD). Some focus on classics like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (book, DVD, VHS) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (book, ebook, DVD). Some reflect our specialized focus on justice issues like Benny Golden’s War on the Family: Mother’s in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind (book, DVD) and Barrett J. Foerster’s Race, Rape and Injustice (book, DVD).

Check out our newest database of streaming videos! Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video, from the Alexander Street Press, offers a collection (467 titles and growing) of documentaries, training videos, and interviews that offer real life strategies, techniques, and experiences of justice and public safety professionals as well as profiles and accounts from offenders and victims. Browse the collection to find videos like “The Arson Detectives,” a look inside Houston’s elite arson detective unit and how they find clues in ashes; or “Crime Ink,” a documentary about some of the people who work as crime reporters at New York City’s biggest newspapers; or “Behind Closed Doors,” an in-depth examination of domestic violence from both an abuser’s and a victim’s personal perspectives; and hundreds more.